Still Made in U.S.A.

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I do find it a challenge to find anything still made in America when I shop.

Back in the late 70’s early 80’s the first thing a person saw when entering a Walmart , a huge display of items made in America .

what the hell happened?
 
spinalcracker said:
what the hell happened?
Click to expand...
I grew up in Napa, CA. When I was a kid, there was industry. In school, I took a tour of the "Rough Rider" jeans factory. In Napa! There was a company called "Basalt" that I think supplied granite to other industries. And of course, Kaiser Steel was a huge employer there. They sold all kinds of steel "things". I don't know, but I heard they included offshore oil platforms. My dad worked for them for years. This town was a good place to work, a good producer of useful things.

And then the town was destroyed by the wine industry. The town changed from a nice place to a shit hole. As a kid, I rode my bike from one end to the other, taking pictures and enjoying the place. Coming back decades later, I saw it was a shit city, full of shitty people.

Assuming any interest, I can relate the nice businesses, Trade Fair, Alpha Beta, Shirley's Candy Jar, Sounds Great, etc.
 


when I was living in Oklahoma Zebco was headquartered there , they made everything fishing there

i used to go to the pawn shops in Tulsa and buy any beat up broken Zebco reels….I could then take one or two to the Zebco shop and they traded me some rebuilt reels for the broken ones , no charge

same with Kwickset products , mostly doorknobs and such…..

Oklahoma had several manufacturing businesses In Oklahoma and they all sold out and went to China

sad

humanity is going backwards

my grandparents and their parents knew how to make stuff….hell , they did not need any plans , much less an architect , when they built a house

they made just about everything and grew the rest

my first cars manual explained how to set the timing and adjust the lifters

todays manuals warn owners not to drink the antifreeze
 
spinalcracker said:
I do find it a challenge to find anything still made in America when I shop.

Back in the late 70’s early 80’s the first thing a person saw when entering a Walmart , a huge display of items made in America .

what the hell happened?
Click to expand...
I always used to make this point. American flags everywhere in Wally World, big made in American promotions.
They found out that people don't want made in America. People want cheap. At least, that's what WalMart shoppers want.
 
When I came back home after military service in '65 I used to refuse to but anything that was not made in the USA. My liberal family told me that I was a xenaphobe and prejudice. I was able to find a lot of what I was looking for, then the US made products became more and more expensive. My family still thinks that I out dated. But I still look at the manufacture's country of origin.

I still try to buy nothing from China. I freaked out a few years ago when I saw that the american flag was made in china. My family (brother in law) that I was still an extremist.
 
Jarrod32 said:
They found out that people don't want made in America. People want cheap. At least, that's what WalMart shoppers want.
Click to expand...

I have said for quite awhile that the most subsidized entity in the country is the American Consumer.
 
walkingnam said:
. I was able to find a lot of what I was looking for, then the US made products became more and more expensive.
Click to expand...
Off shoring mfg was a way to limit price inflation.

As you point out, made in USA became expensive. Made in China allowed companies to not have to increase their priced nearly as quickly as they would have if they had kept mfg here.
 
We have so much invested in offshore production of the products that we need. You may not remember but we had a company here selling American flags made in China and we were buying up fast to show our patriotism. There was even a plan being floated about having our American military uniforms being outsourced to China. We sold the Humvee company to China before we had a replacement for it that we are still manufacturing here (???). Our clothes are made in south east asia. Our cars are really made world wide but assembled here.

At the start of the pandemic we didn't have enough PPE's because they were made in China. Trump brought them back to America so we didn't have to rely on China. Look what his "America First Policy" got him with our allies and citizenry.
 
Black and white Zebco 303 rod and reel combo $3.99 at the drugstore or Kmart. Plastic reel and 5' fiberglass pole. A 4 pound bass would strip the gears out on one more than one occasion.
 
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They make stuff in my county. Auto stuff. Other stuff. Weapons stuff.
 
Buck:

Kind of misstated on the Humvee sale to China. I now believe that in 2009 GM sold the Humvee line of vehicles (not the entire AM General company) to a company in China. The New York Times identified the buyer of the Hummer truck unit as China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd.. However, the rest of the saga is even more interesting. The latest that I have found on the deal is that today there are three Chinese companies manufacturing the vehicle in China. Interestingly, GM (??) or someone in Detroit is supposedly exporting the H1 frames and/or chassis to them for completion over there. From what I've found there are at least three Chinese automobile manufacturers building Humvee clones. One of these, the Dongfeng "Hanma" rely on imported U.S. made parts including Hummer H1 chassis and GM V8 6.5L diesel engines. These clones are currently made for the Chinese market.

I believe that AM General is still in business in Indiana as you mention, but I believe that they are making the current version of the Humvee that was used in Iraq and Afghanistan
 
I enjoy watching the show “How it’s Made” that features mostly US & Canadian factories. I recently started watching “Factory made” that features mostly EU factories. North American factories are highly automated where European factories have lots of workers doing menial jobs. Low levels of automation. So how can European factories compete with highly automated NA factories? It just doesn’t make sense.
 
spinalcracker said:
I do find it a challenge to find anything still made in America when I shop.

Back in the late 70’s early 80’s the first thing a person saw when entering a Walmart , a huge display of items made in America .

what the hell happened?
Click to expand...
Sam Walton died.

Her Hillaryness became a director.

The Oligarchs moved in. I don't know how much Black Rock or other vulture capital firms own of Wally World, but I'm sure they've got considerable holdings.
 
AM General, as noted, was sold to American interests in 1983. This was required as the French state-owned NGO, Renault, owned a majority interest in American Motors, parent of AM General. AMG had contracts with the Humvee, the Postal vehicle of the time (made through 1984) and more-traditional military trucks. The contracts were closed to foreign-owned corporations, so the option was to cancel the contracts (and turn Humvee manufacturing over to someone else), sell AM General, or have Renault sell American Motors.

A Renault sale would have meant immediate bankruptcy for AMC, so AM General was sold. To, of all people, LTV corporation.

It's been passed around since then, but it remains independent of other auto or truck makers.

The Hummer line was another issue. AM General tried to market the civilian Humvee for several years, with little market penetration. They had few dealers and no advertising. GM came forward, and offered a deal: They would buy rights to market the Humvee (as Hummer H1) and hold the name, Hummer, as their division. The Humvee, civilian and military, would continue to be made in South Bend by AM General.

The Hummer H2 and later H3 would be based on GM SUVs, and made by GM. All advertising, dealer recruitment, etc, would be done by GM.

When GM wound up in bankruptcy, the receivers tried to sell the Hummer brand to China - but there were no buyers. It remained a GM property, a dormant brand, until this battery-car idiocy emerged.
 
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